


In loco parentis

by lady_brontide



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Ember Island (Avatar), F/M, Mom Friend Katara (Avatar), Momo being Momo, No Beta, Post-Episode: s03e16 The Southern Raiders, Zuko (Avatar) is a Good Parent, Zutara Month, my beta reader didn't want to read it today but I want to publish today, one black coffee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:49:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27279016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lady_brontide/pseuds/lady_brontide
Summary: Five times Zuko was the Gaang's dad sharing joint-custody with Katara, and one time he was a really good custody partner. And...bonus smut.In this fic I imagine everyone two years older.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 334





	1. Chapter 1

One

Zuko had spent so long thinking about the Avatar as the master of all elements, harbinger of peace, de facto ambassador to all nations, that it came as quite a shock to see what he and his team was like outside the battleground. Yes, he was just technically still a child, but Zuko privately wondered what the point of being trapped in an iceberg for one hundred years was if your consciousness wasn’t going to age at all. 

He and Katara had thoroughly searched his old family's home, finding it abandoned except for his last visit a few months prior. When it was safe, he leant down to help Katara onto Appa’s back. 

“Would it be all right if I waited here? I think I need some time alone to think,” she asked. She looked up into his eyes, pleading for some silence. “Unless you need help getting everyone packed.”

Zuko snorted, but pulled his arm back up. “I think I can manage.” Katara pressed her mouth into a line, but nodded and let him fly away. _What was she talking about? I commanded a battalion, managed my own ship. I’ve been groomed to ascend. I can get a twelve year old to Ember Island._

He thought that until the second he slid off Appa, and spotted chaos. 

Sokka has a Momo spread eagle on parchment, and is drawing what looks like his twentieth draft of the lemur’s outline from the discarded paper. Suki, kneeling next to him, dangles a peach above Momo’s head to satiate him. 

Toph stands in a shallow pit of mud, where Zuko’s tent used to be. She is in her underclothes, and covered from head to toes in flecks of dirt, both dry and wet. 

Aang has taken the discarded parchment, shredded it, and is using Toph’s mud pit to wet the pieces. He seems to be molding them to a rock he had bent into a perfect replica of his own head. 

“What are you all doing? I thought you’d be training!” Zuko thunders to Aang and Toph. Appa grumbles behind him. 

“I’m making an anatomically correct sketch of Momo. In case he is the last of his kind and can’t, you know- OW” Suki pinches his arm. 

“I’m being supportive,” Suki says. She dangles the peach and coos at Momo. 

“I’m taking a mud bath,” Toph boasts. 

“I’m making a farmer’s hat!” Aang says. He proudly holds up his bust with his half-finished hat. 

“Where are the tents?” Zuko demands. 

“I bet Aang I could use earthbending to throw a rock further than him, but he cheated by making a big wave, so the tents are drying up the hill,” Toph answers nonchalantly. 

“I didn’t cheat! You didn’t say I couldn’t throw a rock _down_ into the water. That’s technically a distance-” Aang hastily defended himself. 

“I meant _further out_ , and you know it Twinkle-Toes!”

“Enough!” Zuko feels the fire leave his nostrils before he’s conscious of it. “Suki, go grab the tents and fold them up. Toph, clean up and put the landscape back how you found it so it doesn’t look suspicious. Aang, help me pack up the food. Sokka, let Momo go. Everyone get your sleeping gear rolled up. We have a new camp spot.”

When they finally land on Ember Island, Zuko is grateful to find Katara had a relaxing afternoon.

“How did packing go?” she asks, brushing some mud off of Appa. 

Zuko lets out a strangled sound from the saddle where he’s tossing down gear. “You camped with them? For a whole year?” 

She shrugs, and takes the sleeping rolls into the house. She warned him.

* * *

Two

The second time Zuko realizes someone has to be an authority figure is when he’s drilling Aang and Toph. He’d run through basic and advanced forms with Aang, and had refereed a sparring session with Toph so his pupil could practice improvising. 

Once they were done, Aang and Toph seemed restless. 

“What’s the matter? That’s all I have for you today,” Zuko asks, toweling the back of his neck. 

Aang rubs his head. “You sure you don’t want to put us through another set? I think I could use more practice.”

Toph snorts. “I want to practice the forms too. Who knows what cool tricks I can do harnessing firebending energy.” 

Zuko is perplexed. “I had to drag you both out here at daybreak. You threatened to squish me,” he says to Toph. She crosses her arms. “All right, we can do the basic forms again. Aang, move through the forms without bending. Toph, try and move dirt, but slowly.”

He coaches them through another set. They both do splendidly. Zuko is done for the day though and he sits on the house’s stairs, calling orders. He hears the door behind him open, and Katara settles next to him on the stairs. 

“When will you be done?” she asks between instructions. 

“Why?” He is genuinely surprised. She normally never interrupts lessons.

“I asked Aang and Toph to do laundry today. If we want our clothes dry, they’ll need to hang them by noon,” she replies. Katara leans forward, letting her chin rest on her knees. Zuko slowly realizes. He’s been duped. 

“That’s enough for today,” he calls out. “I hear you two have laundry duty.”

Aang and Toph both turn pink. _Caught,_ Zuko thinks. He chucks his towel at Aang. “Get moving before I make you spar against me.” Both blanche, if Toph could truly blanche, and scramble up the stairs into the house. On the other side of the yard, they hear footsteps. 

“Hello, sister. Angry one. Top of the morning,” Sokka calls across the yard. He has two leaves criss-crossed across his head making a beach-bum hat, and a melon in one hand. 

Zuko crosses his arms and glowers at Sokka. His smile slowly disappears, and his shoulders drop. 

“Fine! I’ll start airing out the house. Open the windows, Sokka, dust the dustables, Sokka. What’s a dustable anyway…” his voice trails off, but Katara is sniggering. 

“How’d you know I’d asked him to do that?” she asks. 

Zuko pulls his tunic around his shoulders. “I didn’t. I figure anytime Sokka is idle it’s because he should be doing something else.” 

“Wow. That’s spot on.”

“They’re a disaster without instruction. I can’t believe I just caught the Avatar trying to get out of laundry. Did you spend all day just telling them what to do?” 

“Not all day. Just when they were awake, and then I’d go to bed first, so I didn’t have to.”

“You need a nap.”

She yawns into her knees. 

As they fall into a daily routine of training, chores, training, Zuko finds himself more and more giving everyone tasks around the house. He thinks Katara is grateful, because she yawns less, and seems to actually have time to work through her own waterbending forms after dinner, when the rest of them are on dish and clean-up duty.

* * *

Three

The third time Zuko found himself a de facto babysitter was one morning when Katara asked him to take Aang and Sokka shopping for groceries. He hadn’t thought much of it, but when Katara handed him a long list, with things he knew he would never find in the Island’s markets, he knew they were being sent away on purpose. 

Zuko thought very highly of Sokka. He was a brave warrior and a risk-taker. Zuko thought highly of Aang. He was a bright kid who was patient in his learning, and wise beyond his short one hundred and twelve years.

But when they were together, he would rather face-down a pack of moose-lions with nothing but his Uncle’s Tsugi horn. 

They were here to buy _food._ Real food. Not pastries, and certainly not to go shopping. Katara had very dramatically, in front of Aang and Sokka, handed Zuko their money and asked for _real food._ He’d turned his back to pay the grocer, and turned just in time to see Sokka and Aang had disappeared into the curio shop across the street with too much glee on their faces. Zuko dropped the basket of vegetables and dashes after them.

“Sokka!” Zuko’s voice broke terribly but he didn’t care, as he lunged to drag Sokka out of the way of several helmets toppling off a shelf. The shopkeeper looked exhausted, and they’d been there five minutes. Zuko already had Aang by the collar in one hand. The kid wanted to look at Lemur towers, whatever those were. 

“It’s to stimulate his mind. Momo gets bored in the house,” Aang had argued. Zuko had pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“He’s a _flying_ lemur. He could fly into any of the many trees at home,” Zuko says back. 

“But this one has a bell!” Aaang clinked the bell at the top of the tower. 

“You can take the windchime out of my window. It’s too loud anyway.” 

He paid the grocer for enough food for the next four days. Sokka and Aang pouted until Zuko relented and let them take three silver pieces and choose tea cakes to have with dinner. 

When they returned home Zuko gave Katara the leftover money without a word. 

“They wanted tea cakes didn’t they?” Katara asked. She offered Zuko a steaming cup of ginseng tea. 

Zuko nodded. He looked into the tea cup with some interest. “You know, a bottle of peach wine would only be three silver pieces. I’ll grab one next time at the market.” He tapped his fingertips against the cup. “Why did you kick us out of the house this morning?” 

Katara’s cheeks turned up in a smile behind the rim of her cup. “Suki, Toph and I had a spa day. We used the baths out back and made some mud masks. I thought it would be nice, since Toph is never clean, and Suki needed some pampering after prison.” 

“That was kind of you,” Zuko mumbled. “Let me know if you want hot rocks next time.” Katara nodded and sighed. The steam rose around her, and for a few quiet moments they pretended they didn’t have three children and a Suki under their care.

* * *

Four

The fourth time Zuko acts like a dad, it’s awkward. They’ve trudged home from the theater downcast. Aang looked particularly sad. Zuko knew the battle was weighing on the guy, but he had to stay focused. 

He found him on the balcony overlooking the ocean. It was the nursery he and Azula shared when he’d been a toddler, and when things were simpler. Aang was dressed in his trousers and naught else. Momo sat on the balcony next to him, peeking his bulbous eyes around when Zuko entered. 

“Do you need to talk?” Zuko asked. He remembered how much he had resented unsolicited talking-to’s, but they had worked. Eventually. 

“I feel like an idiot,” Aang said quietly. Zuko leaned against the balcony and absently petted Momo’s back. 

“You’re going to defeat him, Aang. That play was stupid. Idiots trying to push propaganda, nothing more. Don’t take it to heart.”

“That isn’t why,” Aang replied. He bowed his head and Zuko saw his cheeks flush. “I kissed Katara, and I think I hurt her feelings. She said she was confused, and I was disrespectful.” 

Zuko held his breath. He didn’t know what to do with that. He’d never kissed a girl first, and certainly not when he was twelve and awkward and gangly. He cleared his throat. 

“Did you ask her if you could?”

Aang looked perplexed. “I didn’t know...are you supposed to ask? I thought kissing was okay.”

Zuko tried to recall what his Uncle had told him when he’d been fourteen. A pretty girl at a port of call had smiled at him once, and Zuko had blushed furiously, and all but begged to get back on the ship. 

“Well, I think you’re supposed to ask whenever. Especially if the other person tells you they’re confused. It’s more important to honor their wishes than your desires.” He thought back to when Mai first kissed him. It had been in his sitting room, she’d gently turned his face toward her and pressed her lips to his. She’d asked him, and he’d let her. Then he’d pulled her on top of him in a manner most undignified for the crown prince.

“That makes sense.” Aang cupped his forehead in his hands. “Do you think I should apologize?” 

“You should always apologize. But not tonight. Give Katara some room to think. If she said before she was confused, she probably needs some space now.”

“I didn’t think love would be this hard,” Aang whispered. 

Zuko didn’t hesitate. He reached out and gripped Aang on the shoulder, trying to show him he understood. “Uncle used to say that finding the one meant for you was like meeting someone who could sing every song back to you, even if you didn’t know the rest of the tune.” Aang looked up at him, a very clear expression of ‘not helping’’ written on his face. “Sorry. I spent my teenage years on a boat with men, I don’t know the finer points of love.” 

Aang nodded. 

“Now, _sex-_ ” 

“ _No thank you goodnight_ ,” Aang said, pushing Zuko into the bedroom, through the door, and out into the hallway. 

~~~~~~

Katara laid in bed with her hands folded over her stomach. The candle on the bedside table would need to be replaced tomorrow. She tried to sift through her anxiety. It was slow-going. 

_We’re in the middle of a war. I only know war. I’m trying to help the Avatar defeat the fire lord. Aang is much younger than me, and I love him a lot. I don’t know if I love him like that though. He doesn’t make me feel like Jet or Zuko-what?_

Katara’s brain screeched to a halt. So what if he got everyone moving in the morning and let her have extra time to have tea before cooking breakfast? So what if his efficient dish-washing system let her practice her waterbending forms with a rising moon? So what. Sokka or Aang would do that for her too. 

_Well, no they wouldn’t because I’ve been mothering them_ she thought. She broke from her thoughts when a soft knock came at the door. When she cracked it open, Zuko stood outside. She let him in quickly. His cheeks were pink. 

“I talked to Aang, and I thought you might need some of this,” he says, holding out a cask of peach wine and a glass. “I brought two glasses, in case you wanted company. Or not.” 

Katara raises an eyebrow. “What did you talk about?”

“How to be respectful,” he says quickly. She is appeased.

They sit on the balcony of her room, sipping peach wine and not talking. It’s wonderful. Frogs croak somewhere, and a few lazy lightning beetles float across the horizon. 

“Thank you,” Katara says after a long while. She’s feeling warm. “You’ve been a big help around here. I thought you’d be spoiled and one other person I’d need to instruct around.” Her tone of voice has a tiny, resentful lilt. 

He had felt a little spark of resentment flare in return. But what else would she have expected? “I lived on a ship with a bunch of men and my uncle for three years. You learn pretty quickly that nothing is ‘women’s work’. Cooking and cleaning is part of being an adult, and part of being on a team,” he answers her. He poured another gulp of wine. “Uncle told me, after my cousin Lu Ten died, the first time he didn’t feel sorrow was while washing dishes. After he told me that, I’d sneak into the galley late and scrub whatever still looked dirty from supper.” 

Katara snorted, and Zuko smiled a little. “Aang seems sorry,” he whispered. 

Katara set her cup down. She leaned back on her palms, tucking her chin down. “He has a lot to learn.”

“Well he has good teachers.” He catches the double meaning and blushes. “Not that...you’re going to teach him to-”

“To _what_ , Zuko?” His shoulders slump and he mumbles something like ‘bad word choice, sorry’. She pours him more wine. 

“I didn’t mind being the parent when it was just Aang and Sokka. But with Toph and Suki here it’s harder. It was much easier to keep their attention without a playmate around,” she says.

Zuko snorts into his cup. Playmate isn’t the word he’d use between Sokka and Suki, but he kept it to himself. “All things considered, I think you’re doing amazing. They need a leader.” 

“And I don’t want to be a parent for someone who kisses me,” she says. Zuko hears the sadness in her voice. He doesn’t know how to help her. 

She hums and takes a gulp of her wine. The air has shifted. Zuko isn’t sure how, but he knows what when Katara places her hand on his. She’s flushed from the wine. He weaves his fingers through hers and lifts his glass in a toast. 

“To our three awful children, and Suki,” Zuko says. Katara giggles. 

“To Suki, our perfect niece.” They drink. 

* * *

Five

The fifth time Zuko is the group’s dad is after supper has been eaten, dishes have been cleaned, and the little group is falling asleep. 

The house is large and old. It’s sturdier, and built for family, not parties. Usually they’d eat outside, but storm clouds have been building behind the mountains, and everyone seems content to hide in the house tonight. There is a family room beyond the kitchen with a hearth and plenty of pillows. The playing table Azula used to chase him around is still intact, and Suki and Katara are playing a tile game. Sokka is sitting in front of the fire examining his map. Aang is watching the tile game with interest. 

Toph is playing with Momo, keeping a pebble away from him. 

Zuko wonders if there is a way to add weight to the tiles so Toph can learn to play. Her feet must get bored listening all the time. 

He’s been sorting through the kitchen, drying dishes, and making mental notes on what to buy at the market. He's surprised to walk back into the living room and find almost everyone gone. Suki and Sokka have snuck off. Katara is missing as well, but they’ve left the tile game for tomorrow. Aang is asleep on the floor beside the table, and Toph is lying sprawled with Momo on her stomach. Zuko sighs. 

He shakes Aang’s shoulder. The airbender cracks his eyes open. “Let’s get you to bed.” Aang nods and sits up, rubbing his eyes with his palms. Zuko kneels and gingerly cradles Toph. Momo stirs and clambors up around his shoulders. He sets Toph down on her bed, pulling the blanket over her. Momo nuzzles into his head before scampering back onto Toph’s stomach. She grumbles and rolls over. 

Aang wanders down to his room, and when Zuko pops his head in to extinguish the lanterns, Aang is already passed out on his bed. Breathing deeply, Zuko snuffs the lantern and closes the door. 

He’s up this late most days but today he feels the exhaustion set in. He’d set everyone through their training paces today, even Suki, who said she wanted more practice with real fire. He hasn’t sparred with a real opponent for a long-time, and easy to say, Suki might have put him through her paces. 

Katara is outside moving through her forms with three orbs of water. Her hair is piled on her head in a voluminous poof. The moon is nearly full, and frogs croak in the forest. The rain clouds are still on the move, and he can smell ozone. 

Zuko doesn’t know why, but he heads down the steps and removes his tunic and shoes. Wordlessly, he approaches and starts moving through the forms with her, breathing deeply. The stances are softer than firebending forms; he isn’t feeding energy, just moving it around. Katara smiles when she notices him, and continues to shift her weight through the stances. 

Katara moves through the stances with grace and control. Her body shifts easily from toe to heel, heel to toe, diaphragm expanding for air. Zuko concentrates hard to keep up with her footwork. He doesn’t notice until their eyes meet that they are face-to-face for the next forms in the series, moving limbs in wide arcs under an open sky. As he inhales deeply, he thinks he could stay here in the ozone layer forever with her. 

They practice in sync until Katara yawns and the water she’s holding ripples as if connected to her lungs. 

“I think you should rest,” Zuko says. He’s sweating from the humidity and muscle engagement. Katara nods but doesn’t move. There’s a twinkle in her eyes. Without warning, Zuko is drenched in icy water. 

“ _Katara_!” he shrieks. She’s doubled over laughing, but stands up to shush him. 

“Shhh you’ll wake everyone,” she whispers. 

“This water is freezing!” he whispers back. Katara flashes him an apologetic smile and wicks the water off of him. They walk companionably into the house and Zuko makes them herbal tea. The rain comes and tap-tap-taps on the roof of the house. He nudges her with his elbow when she nearly falls asleep sitting down. 

“You sleep in tomorrow. I’ll get everyone moving,” he says helping her to her feet. She nods, and pauses. She lifts on her toes and pecks his cheek, then swiftly makes her way to her bedroom. Zuko wishes for that cold water now. 

* * *

One time he's just a good partner

“Listen up, kids,” Zuko says one morning. He pulls out his formidable to-do list, and there is a collective groan. Even from Momo. “It’s this, or a full day of training, just like yesterday.” The groans stop.

“Sokka and Suki, head into town. Stop by the armory and the grocer-” he stops when for a gentle throat clearing sound. 

“Sokka isn’t allowed in the armory after _the incident_ ,” Suki says. Zuko still didn’t know what _the incident_ was, but whatever it was he’d had to pose as Sokka’s disappointed brother-in-law to talk the shopkeeper out of charges. For the sake of his blood pressure he’d avoided finding out. 

“Okay, Suki, go to the armory. Sokka, you’re on vegetable duty. Toph, take Aang to the far-side of the island. There’s a protected cove. It’s the perfect environment to practice bending something you can only sense,” he finished. 

Toph popped a slice of plum in her mouth and mumbled ‘cool’, he thinks. Aang sighed and fit his chin into his palm. “What are you doing today?” 

“Katara is helping me prepare provisions for our trip. Dry goods,” he said. Everyone groaned again, except Katara. “Or we could eat nothing,” she responds with too much chipperness.

Finally, everyone stumbled off to their tasks. Toph, laughing maniacally, and Sokka with a glint of mischief. Zuko felt a little bad for Suki. 

“I didn’t know we were taking dry goods,” Katara says. She’s setting breakfasts dishes in the wash tub. 

Zuko taps his finger-tips together. “Actually, I thought you’d like a spa day by yourself. I heated up the baths outside, so the water should be comfortable. And I prepped all the dry goods two days ago, so there isn’t anything else-” he stops, caught off guard by Katara hugging him tightly. He wraps his arms around her shoulders and hugs her back. 

He isn’t a parent or a husband, but he thinks this is what any good husband would do. He remembers two ladies from his uncle’s tea shop. They had given him the idea. 

_“He arranged the whole day. He took the children to the theater and then is taking them to dinner, and he arranged for cook to bring dinner to our solar for some quiet time this evening. I’m so pleased,” the one woman beamed to her friend. She was sipping an herbal tea specially ordered. Zuko had wondered why Uncle had ordered an outside tea._

_“You didn’t make this blend. Where’s it from?” Zuko held up the tin._

_“That lovely woman’s husband came in yesterday and asked if we had it. When I said no, he came back with the tin. He paid for the service, but insisted I serve this. I think it is her favorite,” Iroh said. He was smiling._

_“Is it a special occasion?” Zuko asked. They were peeking through the curtain from the kitchen._

_“He didn’t say,” Iroh answered. “Love is most profound in the details. Remember that.” He elbowed Zuko and laughed._

Holding Katara, Zuko understood what his uncle meant. 


	2. Bonus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Zuko and Katara stop dancing around the attraction and act on it. 
> 
> Also in which the author avoids writing her other fics and her grad school application essays because she thinks writing something fun will get the writing juices going again.

He isn’t sure how it began, but it must have started an age ago, because one day he hands Katara a dish to dry after supper and he feels a deep flush cover his face when their palms touch. He tries to duck his face away, but she’d caught him, and a blush crept up her cheekbones as well. They continue the dance with every dish. He holds onto them one moment longer, she takes them from the exact spot his hand holds them. She reaches across his body to take a dry towel, and he refuses to move even as she leans into his shoulder. Their four terrible children--they discussed it over wine one humid night, and Suki has officially been adopted--are bickering at the table about what to do the rest of the evening.

“I heard there’s a group of trapeze performers in town for three nights only. We should go!” Sokka says. Zuko is hardly listening because Katara is brushing her elbow across his midsection and his brain _isn’t working._ But somehow he hears his name. 

“What. What?” he asks. Three pairs of eyes peek up at him hopefully. 

“I said, can we go?” Toph asks. 

“Um,” he turns to Katara. She stares at him. Finally she shrugs and nods at the same time. “Yeah, you guys can go.” Aang and Toph are out the door before he can warn them not to give away their identity. Sokka gives his sister the biggest eyes Zuko has ever seen, and he’s seen Katara’s eyes. Katara sighs and nods. Sokka takes a generous handful of silver before grabbing Suki and rushing out the door. 

“Buy snacks for everyone!” Katara yells out the door behind them. There is no reply, and Zuko silently bids that silver adieu. 

Katara shuts the door, and leans back against it. “So.” 

“So,” Zuko responds. He crosses his arms. They stare at each other. 

It’s inevitable. They’re in his room collapsed back on his bed before he has any words to formulated enough to speak. 

“Katara-” he presses her away for a moment, trying to catch his breath. “I admire you a lot.”

“I want to be intimate with you,” Katara states bluntly. She drags Zuko down and presses her lips against his hard. He responds by pulling her waist tightly against him, and clawing one hand into her tresses.

They’re naked and Katara is grateful Zuko has been joining her for evening forms, because he is following her movements so smoothly. He moves in sync with her, rolling over just enough to wrap her leg around his hip, ducking down to kiss her shoulder when she goes after his throat. Desire pools in her mouth and stomach, and she very much wants this man. 

When he’s lying between her hips, kissing her with longing, his fingers buried in her, causing earthquakes and eruptions inside her, she knows she’s doomed.

“Are you sure?” he asks again, brushing his nose against her cheek, and pushing his fingers just a little harder inside her. He presses his thumb across her most sensitive spot. Katara squeaks, covering her mouth with one hand. 

“Yes please,” she mumbles, tugging his mouth up to hers. 

Zuko is flustered, and happy, and sleep-deprived. He guides himself in, and slowly presses forward, pressing heated kisses to Katara’s collarbones. It’s exquisite, and his mind falters. They find a rhythm together. It’s slow but heated, full of energy. Zuko doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to follow her water-bending forms with her again without his body betraying him. 

When he comes, it’s much faster than he’d thought, and he buries his head in Katara’s shoulder with a groan. She laughs and runs her hands up his back and into his hair. 

“How ever will you _regain your honor_?” Katara mocks. She giggles at her own joke, but Zuko’s still hard. He tugs her left leg up by the knee and thrusts deeply. She gasps, the flush returning to her face. 

“Give me twenty minutes. Until then,” he removes himself with a wince and begins the slow descent to Katara’s center. He buries a finger into her folds and latches his mouth to her clit, praying to whoever is listening he can help her finish before anyone comes home. 

He is utterly successful, and Katara is so grateful when he climbs back up her body to kiss her soundly. “More?” 

“I’m ready,” he says, kissing her softly. “If you’ll have me again.” She nods. This time, they move slower, savoring the push and pull. He captures her hands and waves their fingers together as he pushes fully into her with a groan forming deep in his chest. Katara thinks this is perfect. 

When they are done, Zuko pulls his trousers back on and makes them a pot of herbal tea. They sip in bed. Katara snuggles into the covers and dozes off. Reluctantly Zuko nudges her back awake. 

“Do you want me to go and say we swapped for the night?” he asks. There will be a thousand questions if they are caught. 

Katara sighs. “No, stay.”

“They’ll find us in the morning,” Zuko says. He runs a fingertip down Katara’s side, down to her hip and back to her shoulder. 

“Yes, they will,” she says. She grabs his hand and tugs his body around her. “When Sokka says ‘what happened’ don’t say ‘what do you think’. Please.” He snorts into her shoulder but whispers affirmation, and settles in behind her. 

For the first time in months, both sleep soundly. 


End file.
